US President Donald Trump’s high-ranking official Pete Hegseth stirred a controversy as he reposted a video that says women should not have the right to vote.
The controversial repost on X shows a video of a Christian nationalist church where various pastors say women should not be allowed to vote.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth shared the video on Thursday night, illustrating his deep and personal connection to a Christian nationalist pastor who has extreme views on the role of religion and women.
The Trump official commented on an almost seven-minute-long report by CNN, examining Doug Wilson, cofounder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or CREC.
The report featured a pastor from Wilson’s church who is seen batting for the repealing of women’s right to vote from the Constitution. Another pastor can be heard saying that in his ideal world, people would vote as households.
The video also featured a female congregant saying that she submits to her husband.
“All of Christ for All of Life,” Hegseth wrote in his post that accompanied the video.
Hegseth’s post received more than 12,000 likes and 2,000 shares on X. Some users agreed with the pastors in the video, while others expressed alarm at the defense secretary promoting Christian nationalist ideas.
Doug Pagitt, pastor and executive director of the progressive evangelical organization Vote Common Good, said the ideas in the video are views that “small fringes of Christians keep” and said it was “very disturbing” that Hegseth would amplify them.
Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell told The Associated Press on Friday that Hegseth is “a proud member of a church” that is affiliated with CREC and he “very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.”
In May, Hegseth invited his personal pastor, Brooks Potteiger, to the Pentagon to lead the first of several Christian prayer services that Hegseth has held inside the government building during working hours. Defense Department employees and service members said they received invitations to the event in their government emails.
“I’d like to see the nation be a Christian nation, and I’d like to see the world be a Christian world,” Wilson said in the CNN report.